β-Caryophyllene: A Single Volatile Component of n-Hexane Extract of <i>Dracaena cinnabari</i> Resin

• Main Author: Mohamed Al-Fatimi
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2020-10-01
• Series: Molecules
• Subjects: <i>Dracaena cinnabari</i>; resin; β-caryophyllene; GC-MS; Soqotra
• Online Access: https://www.mdpi.com/1420-3049/25/21/4939

The pure Soqotri resin of <i>Dracaena cinnabari</i> Balf.f. (Dracaenaceae) has no volatile smell due to its low content of volatile constituents. Although it is insoluble in n-hexane, we found that the resin, when suspended in n-hexane within five days at 5 °C, led to the extraction of a small portion of a single volatile liquid constituent, which was identified by GC-MS as sesquiterpene β-caryophyllene. This method of extracting the volatile constituents using hexane under cooling is very suitable for resins of the <i>Dracaena</i> species because these resins usually contain very few volatile terpenes and/or non-terpenes, and they may contain only one volatile terpene per resin as this study result. β-Caryophyllene was identified and separated for the first time from the Soqotri standard resin of <i>Dracaena cinnabari</i>. Therefore, β-caryophyllene, as a new chemical property, can support to evaluate the purity of the Soqotri resin. Moreover, a big mass of <i>D. cinnabari</i> resin can yield concentrated β-caryophyllene as a liquid extract for further pharmaceutical and nutraceutical applications.